Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo is the latest high-profile company to be compromised. Sometime over the past weekend, its support pages, which allowed users to download drivers and manuals, were compromised with the addition of a malicious iframe.

The website in this malicious iframe led to the download of a BREDOLAB variant detected as TROJ_BREDOLAB.BY (by Trend Micro). This malware family is well-known for being a downloader of other malware onto affected systems, particularly ZBOT and FAKEAV variants.

BREDOLAB first gained prominence in late 2009 when the number of reported infections significantly grew. Upon investigation by senior advanced threats researcher David Sancho, it was found that BREDOLAB was a new malware family similar to earlier PUSHDO variants.

Later investigations by senior advanced threats researcher Loucif Kharouni established the key role BREDOLAB plays in the criminal underworld. As mentioned earlier, cybercriminals running pay-per-install (PPI) scams frequently use BREDOLAB to infect user systems.

Botnet Model

Lenovo has acknowledged the incident on its official forum and has indicated that the affected pages have now been cleaned. Reports from Vietnamese antivirus vendor Bkis indicated that the pages have been infected since at least Sunday afternoon. Some users also reported getting antivirus warnings while visiting Lenovo’s download website since Saturday.

Users who did go to the Lenovo pages to download support materials from late on June 18 (Friday) to June 21 (Monday) may have been affected by this compromise and should check their systems accordingly.

This further proves the point that you should always have an antivirus program running on your computer at all times (and make sure its updated as well!). Even websites that you think are safe can fall victim to these types of attacks leaving everyone at risk. So be safe out there… cause the internet is one crazy place!

There is a new bot in town and it seems that it has set out to rival the notorious ZBOT botnet. Trend Micro threat researchers recently came across a new spyware detected as TSPY_EYEBOT.A. Certain EYEBOT behaviors cause us to believe that this could lead to a new bot war similar to the worm wars we saw years back between NETSKYand MYDOOM.

EYEBOT is still just a “newbie,” but should the ZBOT criminal minds choose to respond, there is some potential for a Bot war to ensue.  However, at this stage, we cannot be certain what if any response, the ZBOT criminals are likely to make. On the other hand, both EYEBOT and ZBOT use rootkit technology even though the former behaves more like a “backdoor.”

The new spyware exhibits routines similar to ZBOT, aka “Zeus” variants, which are considered some of the most dangerous malware in relation to information, financial, and identity theft. The EYEBOT spyware steals account credentials by logging users’ keystrokes. It is also drops a configuration file similar to those ZBOT uses to monitor bank-related websites. EYEBOT likewise utilizes rootkit technology to hide its malicious files and processes from affected users, which helps it avoid detection and consequent removal.

Originating from Russia, this spyware also acts as a server to a graphical user interface (GUI)-based client, which is one of its notable differences from ZBOT variants. While ZBOT variants are usually standalone programs, the EYEBOT has to receive commands from a remote malicious user. In this regard, the EYEBOT acts much like a typical backdoor program, which gives cybercriminals access to affected systems.

What further sets it apart from its more experienced counterpart, however, is its capability to terminate ZBOT-instigated processes. A closer look at its binary file reveals that the spyware was designed to monitor known ZBOT mutexes, _AVIRA_ and __SYSTEM__.

Only time will tell if anything comes of this or if this will just become another small player in the ever-growing fight against growing botnets.